Hello /books community!
Since this is generally a place of discussion, I thought I'd reach out here to see if there was any interest in giving feedback to my debut novel.
Here's the scoop:
Paradise Point tells the whimsical and thought-provoking tale of the Painter, who is mysteriously transported from Renaissance Italy to the modern world of the 21st century. Tasked with painting the portrait of the enigmatic Bookmaker, the Painter is shocked to find a society consumed by digital devices, leading its people to disconnect from nature, creativity, and their own senses. With the help of the Poet and the Bookmaker, the Painter embarks on a mission to rekindle wonder, imagination, and human connection.
Set in the vibrant, quirky community of Paradise Point on the California coast, the novel unfolds through a series of interconnected stories and memorable characters, reminiscent of John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row. Along the way, readers meet colorful figures like Myra Dukes, Saul Crinkle, Krishna Singh, and Balso Thomas Francis Snell, whose personal dilemmas add layers of humor, mystery, and heart to the narrative.
As these characters’ lives intersect, the story explores the fine line between progress and disconnection, creativity and destruction—leading to unexpected chaos and a journey that unravels with each rhythmic, poetic turn of the page.
Please let me know if you're interested and I could get a copy to you.
A bit about myself:
I was raised in Southern California and now reside in Omaha, Nebraska, where I write, design, and bind my books at a third-generation book bindery. I cut my teeth in marketing for the action sports industry until I turned the page towards literature. I’ve worked in publishing, journalism, and copywriting.
During the COVID lockdowns, I bought a 1980 Dodge campervan and drove 15,000 miles around the country with a photographer in a journalistic endeavor called "roadhumans" on Instagram.
I’ve written multiple collections of poetry, a novella (Berringer: A Hardboiled Quixote), two works of creative nonfiction (Good Morning Wednesday, & OM . . . AHA!), and handmade 50 box sets of rhetorical compendiums called Rhetoric: a perspective (a sort of Oblique Strategies for writers).
My children’s book A WE THING (illustrated by Charles Bailey) appeared on Episode #6 of a local network show in Omaha called Mister K’s Clubhouse.
by francis_rourke